Nancy Mace (SC-1)

Biography

Nancy Mace is a Republican U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, serving since 2021. She is the first Republican woman elected to Congress from South Carolina, having defeated incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham in 2020 by a narrow 50.5% to 49.3% margin. Born on December 4, 1977, at Fort Liberty , North Carolina, she was raised by a retired Army general father and a school teacher mother in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. After dropping out of high school at 17, she worked as a waitress at Waffle House, earned her high school diploma through college courses at Trident Technical College, and built a career in business, founding The Mace Group in 2008—a firm focused on public relations, consulting, technology, marketing, and commercial real estate. She is an author of In the Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel and has two children, Miles and Ellison. Notable achievements include bipartisan legislation like the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act and the Human Trafficking Prevention Act of 2022, awards such as the 2021 Club for Growth Defender of Economic Freedom Award and 2023 White Coat Waste Warrior Award, and a 97% rating from Conservation Voters of South Carolina for her fiscal conservatism and environmental efforts.

Education

Mace earned a B.S. in business administration from The Citadel in 1999, becoming the first woman to graduate from its Corps of Cadets program . She later received an M.S. in journalism and mass communication from the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College in 2004.

Political Experience

Mace entered politics volunteering for Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign and running for U.S. Senate in South Carolina's 2014 Republican primary, where she garnered over 6% of the vote. In 2017, she won a special election for South Carolina House District 99 by a narrow primary runoff, followed by re-election in 2018; there, she served on the Judiciary Committee, focusing on prison reform, healthcare, and offshore drilling. Elected to the U.S. House in 2020, she prioritizes jobs, economy, healthcare, infrastructure, environment, small businesses, and veterans' issues, seeking roles on related committees. Known for fiscal conservatism and conservation, she has been one of the most fiscally conservative members of the South Carolina General Assembly.